Charles Dickens Exam Study Questions with
Correct Verified solutions
Charles Dickens - ✔✔1812-1870
These two unkind books [American Notes; Martin Chuzzlewit ] struck a false note, and Charles
Dickens began to lose something of his great popularity. In addition he had spent money
beyond his income. His domestic life, which had been at first very happy, became more and
more irritating, until he separated from his wife in 1858. To get inspiration, which seemed for a
time to have failed, he journeyed to Italy, but was disappointed. Then he turned back to the
London streets, and in the five years from 1848 to 1853 appeared _________; _____; _____,-
three remarkable novels, which indicate that he had rediscovered his own power and genius. -
✔✔Dombey and Son, David Copperfield, and Bleak House
Later he resumed the public readings, with their public triumph and applause, which soon came
to be a necessity to one who craved popularity as a hungry man craves bread. These
excitements exhausted Charles Dickens, physically and spiritually, and death was the inevitable
result. He died in 1870, over his unfinished __________, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
- ✔✔Edwin Drood
A glance through even this unsatisfactory biography gives us certain illuminating suggestions in
regard to all of Dickens's work. First, as a - ✔✔
child,______ and _________, longing for love and for society, he laid the foundation for those
heartrending pictures of children, which have moved so many readers to unaccustomed tears.
Second, as ___________ in a lawyer's office and in the courts, he gained his knowledge of an
entirely different side of human life. Here he learned to understand both the enemies and the
victims of society, between whom the harsh laws of that day - ✔✔
A glance through even this unsatisfactory biography gives us certain illuminating suggestions in
regard to all of Dickens's work. First, as a child,______ and _________, longing for love and for
society, he laid the foundation for those heartrending pictures of children, which have moved
so many readers to unaccustomed tears. Second, as ___________ in a lawyer's office and in the
courts, he gained his knowledge of an entirely different side of human life. Here he learned to
,understand both the enemies and the victims of society, between whom the harsh laws of that
day frequently made no distinction. Third, as a ___________, and afterwards as manager of
various newspapers, he learned the trick of racy writing, and of knowing to a nicety what would
suit the popular taste. Fourth, as an _______, always an actor in spirit, he seized upon every
dramatic possibility, every tense situation, every peculiarity of voice and ge - ✔✔poor;
lonely; clerk; reporter; actor
When we turn from Charles Dickens outward training to his inner disposition we find two
strongly marked elements. The first is his _________, which made good stories out of incidents
that ordinarily pass unnoticed, and which described the commonest things-a street, a shop, a
fog, a lamp-post, a stagecoach-with a wealth of detail and of romantic suggestion that makes
many of his descriptions like lyric poems. The second element is his ____________, which finds
relief only in laughter and tears. Like shadow and sunshine these follow one another closely
throughout all his books. - ✔✔excessive imagination; extreme sensibility
Remembering these two things, Charles Dickens training and disposition, we can easily foresee
the kind of novel he must produce. He will be sentimental, especially over____________; he
will excuse the individual in view of the faults of society; he will be dramatic or melodramatic;
and his sensibility will keep him always close to the public, studying its tastes and playing with
its smiles and tears. - ✔✔children and outcasts
If pleasing the public be in itself an art, then Charles Dickens is one of our greatest artists. And it
is well to remember that in pleasing his public there was nothing of the hypocrite or
demagogue in his make-up. He was essentially a part of the great drifting panoramic crowd that
he loved. His sympathetic soul made all their joys and griefs his own. He fought against
_________; he championed the weak against the strong; he gave courage to the faint, and
hope to the weary in heart; and in the love which the public gave him in return he found his
best reward. Here is the secret of Dickens's unprecedented popular success, and we may note
here a very significant parallel with Shakespeare. The great different in the genius and work of
the two men does not change the fact that each won success largely because he studied and
pleased his public. - ✔✔injustice
_______________ (also known as The Pickwick Papers) was Charles Dickens' first novel.
Because of his success with Sketches by Boz published in 1836 Dickens was asked by the
publisher ___________ to supply descriptions to explain a series of comic "cockney sporting
, plates" by illustrator ___________, and to connect them into a novel. - ✔✔The Posthumous
Papers of the Pickwick Club; Chapman & Hall; Robert Seymour
The book The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dicken became Britain's first real publishing
phenomenon, with bootleg copies, theatrical performances, ______ joke books, and other
merchandise.[2] On its cultural impact, Nicholas Dames in ________ writes, "Literature" is not a
big enough category for Pickwick. It defined its own, a new one that we have learned to call
"entertainment."[3] Published in 19 issues over 20 months, the success of The Pickwick Papers
popularised serialised fiction and cliffhanger endings. - ✔✔T Sam Weller; The Atlantic
Raymond Seymour's widow claimed that the idea for the novel was originally her husband's,
but Dickens strenuously denied any specific input in his preface to the 1867 edition: "Mr
Seymour never originated or suggested an incident, a phrase, or a word, to be found in the
book." - ✔✔
The Pickwick Papers is a sequence of loosely related adventures written for serialization in a
periodical. The action is given as occurring 1827-28, though critics have noted some seeming
________.[7] For example, Dickens satirized the case of George Norton suing Lord Melbourne
in 1836. - ✔✔anachronisms
The Pickwick Papers is a sequence of loosely related adventures written for serialization in a
periodical. The action is given as occurring 1827-28, though critics have noted some seeming
anachronisms.[7] For example, Dickens satirized the case of _________ suing ________ in 1836.
- ✔✔George Norton; Lord Melbourne
The novel's protagonist ___________, _________ is a kind and wealthy old gentleman, the
founder and perpetual president of the Pickwick Club. He suggests that he and three other
"Pickwickians" should make journeys to places remote from London and report on their
findings to the other members of the club. Their travels throughout the English countryside by
coach provide the chief subject matter of the novel.[9] A romantic misunderstanding with his
landlady, the widow _______, results in one of the most famous legal cases in English literature,
Bardell v. Pickwick,[10][11] leading to them both being incarcerated in the Fleet Prison for debt.
Pickwick learns that the only way he can relieve the suffering of Mrs Bardell is by paying her
costs in the action against himself, thus at the same time releasing himself from the prison. -
✔✔Samuel Pickwick; Esquire; Mrs Bardell